Jay Harvey Upstage

An early adopter of Islam among black jazzmen was Yusef Lateef (1920-2013), who went his own way musically as well, sounding slightly exotic even while offering ample evidence of rootedness in the mainstream: playing jazz oboe from time to time helped with suggestions of inspiration from afar.  A 1975 date of his quartet at the time has been unearthed by jazz archaeologist Zev Feldman under the title "Alight Upon the Lake" ( Resonance Records ). As an LP set it was a significant feature on Record Store Day last month; I received the two-CD version for review. The subtitle is "Live at the Jazz Showcase," making it a laudable project issuing tapes the proprietor, Joe Segal, made over the years of the musicians he presented at his Chicago club. Lateef was admired as a musical and lifestyle mentor by younger musicians, such  as Bennie Maupin, who's quoted to that effect in the expansive booklet accompanying the release. As near as I can tell, however, he was rarely ...

Everyone remembers the one spate of really bad winter weather we had in January. Whether or Natalie Debikey Scanio, Ronen guest not you have wiped away that snowy spell from your memory, Ronen Chamber Ensemble is making up for interruption in what has turned out to be its season-ender. "Brilliant Winds" came to fruition Monday and Tuesday at the Jewish Community Center and Indiana History Center , respectively. Two-thirds of Ronen's artistic leadership, Jennifer Christen and Alistair Howlett, play wind instruments in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, so it was fitting that once this season's Ronen showcase for music activated by breath had to be postponed because of inclement weather, it would be rescheduled for a couple of cool, seasonable spring evenings.  The crowning achievement came with Francis Poulenc's droll, sparkling Sextet for wind quintet and piano, which I heard Monday evening in the JCC's Laikin Auditorium. The performance had the sheen of fu...

Another joke, perhaps? A way to signal the misdirections the play itself cultivates repeatedly? Probably a simple mistake, insofar as the printed programs for "Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B" tell us that the production, which opened Friday night, runs "March 8-24,  2026."  We are probably all somewhat date-challenged in an era whose broad, dire scope has us wishing for its conclusion. In the real world of local performing arts, the public has until May 24 to see the Summit Performance Indianapolis show at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. Believe you me, it has an all-star cast and a production team operating at their best. Holmes in a moment of endless sleuthing Kate Hamill 's script is loaded with quotations from and allusions to high and low culture as it sends up the icon of fictional sleuthing. Shirley, sometimes Sherlock, Holmes (Frankie Jo Bolda) is shadowed by the trappings of female marginalization, personified by both title characters and neg...

 The glory of brass instruments fits well into an expansive definition of Eastertide, so Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and the Second Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir joined forces Sunday afternoon for "O Radiant Dawn," a program of sacred music by J.S. Bach and Jan Dismas Zelenka. Three trumpets for Bach, four for Zelenka helped make sure there would be plenty of splendor in movements of both works where glory was being proclaimed. Michelle Louer, director of music and fine arts at Second Presbyterian, conducted the concert in the church's spacious sanctuary, which is acoustically sumptuous as well. The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra revealed its historically informed performing acumen with Ingrid Matthews, a professor at Indiana University, as guest concertmaster. The spotlight turned on her to fine effect in the alto aria "Benedictus" of Zelenka's "Missa Paschalis," which revealed soprano soloist Madeline Apple Healey at her best level of t...

Though some of opera's loftiest achievements fit under the genre of tragedy, the art form had to escape the 18th-century strictures of opera seria   and set aside ancient gods for sad, stately operas to attract the public's esteem. It's more than sentimentality that reinforces our love for happy endings; it's also the perennial gift of music to raise our spirits uniquely.  Mozart is chief among the examples of comic genius in music, and "The Marriage of Figaro" stands at the summit, partly for skill at illuminating the emotions of real people without overstatement.  Indianapolis Opera opened a production worthy of this masterpiece Friday evening in the Tobias Theater at Newfields. Resourcefully put together from an original production at Northern Lights Music Festival  with stage direction here by Jessica Burton, the show has the special advantage of guest conductor Bernard McDonald. Director of Opera at Florida State University, McDonald brings a vast resum é...

 Influential as composer and pianist from his early eminence on the Prestige label, Mal Waldron (1925- Mal Waldron's career had a mental-health break.  2002) came through a nervous breakdown in the 1960s to launch a successful second phase of his career, gaining a sustained reputation internationally.  On the path to his late harvest he appeared with a trio at Chicago's Jazz Showcase. From the archives of club owner Joe Segal, the eminent "jazz detective" Zev Feldman has made a recording of Waldron's appearance in 1979 publicly available under the title "Stardust & Starlight at the Jazz Showcase" (Resonance Records ). It's part of an '"open sesame" effect Feldman's friendship with the late Joe Segal and his son Wayne is having, yielding more results for Resonance. Waldron's playing, supported by bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Wilbur Campbell, has the depth and careful consideration of the songs, most of them standards, tha...